1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an outboard motor control system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, there are proposed drive-by-wire (DBW) control systems that use actuators for driving a steering mechanism, shift mechanism and throttle valve of an internal combustion engine mounted on an outboard motor, as taught by, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2003-127986 (particularly paragraphs 0021 to 0026, 0043 to 0045, FIGS. 1, 2, etc.).
As described in another Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2004-52697 ('697; particularly paragraphs 0014 to 0017, FIG. 1, etc.), boats are commonly equipped with two or more outboard motors mounted side-by-side in what is called a “multiple outboard motor installation.” In this technique, sensors installed in a boat to detect manipulated variables of its steering wheel and shift/throttle lever and control units installed in individual multiple outboard motors to control the operation of actuators, are connected in series through an electric signal line.
With this configuration in which the sensors and control units installed in multiple outboard motors are connected in series through the electric signal line, as described in '697, when the operation of the actuators is controlled for each of the outboard motors, it needs to identify the respective outboard motors, i.e., to rewrite software for each of the outboard motors, resulting in increase of complicated tedious work.